cable pvr to pc dvd burning (1 Viewer)

[Michael.M.C]

On Friday my cable company is installing a dual tuner HD cable pvr. (hoping it records in HD, I forgot to ask) There is no charge for the first three months as they requested I review the thing. (I have been working on them for months. I think they made this offer to get me to stop my persistant asking.)

I may want to burn a few programs onto dvd so my plan is to connect the pvr to my computer (I have a large slave hard drive) then burn it from there rather than getting a dvd recorder/burner.

How would I make this connection into my pc and is there a recommended (preferably free) software program allowing me to edit commercials before burning?

I know little about dvdr's. Is one type better than another for what I want to do?

 

[GrahamJW]

Hey Michael:

Check out these sites for good tips on your subject:

http://www.digitalfaq.com/

http://www.tv-cards.com/

Does your video card in your PC have a video input? Most video cards that I have seen only have either an RCA input or an S-video input. This would only allow for analog transfers. Unless there is a way to copy the video file directly from the PVR to the PC hard disk. Maybe someone can chime in with that information.

As for editing out commercials from MPEG2 files I found Womble MPEG2VCR the best and easiest program for this. It is not free though...but there is a trial version that you can try.

 

[Phil Tomaskovic]

I think most PVR's are Linux based so I don't think you can access the file on it directly with your PC.

 

[GrahamJW]

This maybe a little off topic but check this link out for upgrading the hard drive in a TiVo box:

http://www.maximumpc.com/how_to/reprint_2002-03-04.html

 

[DerekJohnson]

I have searched numerous places on the web and nobody really has a distinct way of doing it. I have an IMac G5 and based on the Apple forums you need to bridge the PVR and the computer using an analog- DV converter. There are stand alone converters from Formac for Apple. They also recommend a digital camcorder for converting.